Of course Connery was the best. I had the pleasure of seeing “Goldfinger” on the big screen for first time today.
But I don’t think Johnson would’ve been too bad of a 2nd choice.
He got a chance to play a very James Bondian mid 1960s updating of the 1920s English fictional detective Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond in the best of the 1960s Bond knockoff films, “Deadlier Than The Male” with Elke Sommer.
It’s currently available on youtube if you’ve never seen it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhdjmZ_uJZU
I think it comes the closest in quality to an official Bond film. I rank it higher than the James Coburn/Derek Flint films(and I quite enjoy those as well).
However, avoid the dreadful sequel to it Johnson made called “Some Girls Do”. It’s so campy it makes the Dean Martin/Matt Helm films look like “From Russia With Love”.
actually, Bulldog Drummond came before Bond. I.F. based the Bond series after Drummond.